Gingerbread Cereal

This is a recipe for a gingerbread flavored granola cereal.  
Although I use coconut oil, one can easily substitute it with unsalted butter, grapeseed oil, or even vegetable oil.  If you use an unsaturated fat, you do not need to melt it.
The cereal is very crunchy when it is ready, although when it is removed from the oven it looks rather wet.  It is spicy-smelling, and would go great with sliced granny smith apple. 

Ingredients:

♕250g / 3 1/4 cups rolled oats, uncooked
♕90g / 1/3 cup coconut oil
♕100g / 1/3 cup dark molasses
♕20g / 1T clover honey
♕5g / 2t ginger powder
♕5mL / 1t vanilla extract
♕3g / 1t ground cloves
♕1g / 1/2t ground cardamom
♕200g / 1 1/2 cup raisins



Procedure:

♕Preheat oven to 350˚F / 180˚C.
♕Melt coconut oil.
♕Stir in molasses, honey, and spices.
♕Stir mixture into dry oats, and spread oats onto a baking sheet.
♕Bake for 20 minutes, stopping halfway to stir.
♕Let sit in a turned-off oven for 5-10 minutes, then mix in raisins and allow to cool completely.  The oats will get very crunchy after cooling.  If you want large clusters of oats to be present in your cereal, then have the mixture cool in clumps instead of as one layer, and do not mix it often.
♕Let cool completely, then place in a glass jar until ready to serve.

Chocolatey Banana Bread

Banana bread is a very convenient way to use up blackened bananas.  This recipe for banana bread contains a high amount of whole grains, with chocolatey undertones and chopped nuts for complexity.  It is a good bread for breakfast, with a dough that is not too moist or too dense, thanks to the combined efforts of the baking soda and sour cream.

Ingredients:

♕1 cup / 120g whole wheat flour
♕.5 cup / 50g rye flour
♕.5 cup / 65g white flour
♕2 t / 9g baking soda
♕2 T / 11g cacao powder
♕3 T / 25g dark chocolate, chopped and/or shaved
♕1 cup / 200g turbinado sugar
♕.75 cup / 180mL milk
♕1 tsp / 5mL vanilla extract
♕.25 cup / 55g coconut oil
♕3 very ripe bananas
♕2 eggs
♕4T / 58g sour cream
♕10 hazelnuts

Procedure:

♕Preheat oven to 375˚F /
♕Sift together flours, cacao powder, shaved chocolate, and baking soda.  Add sugar and stir.
♕Mash bananas into a paste in a separate bowl.
♕Melt coconut oil and stir into bananas.
♕To banana mixture, incorporate milk, vanilla extract, eggs, and sour cream.  Stir until
homogeneous.
♕Chop hazelnuts roughly.
note: a mortar and pestle is ideal for this.  Shoot for chunks the size of pebbles.
♕Once the oven is ready, quickly divide mixture into two standard (8' by 3' / 21cm by 8cm) pans.
♕Top with hazelnuts, and bake for 45 minutes.

Healthy Chocolate Covered Fruit

In Russia, it is rather common to serve tea with small candies.  A popular sort of small candy is chocolate-covered dried fruit, stuffed with a nut.  This recipe recreates these candies, but while it is very tasty, it is also very ugly.  Do not let the appearance discourage you!
This procedure can be used as a guide for lots of different fruit and nut combinations.  My very favorite is prunes with toasted almonds.
The chocolate sauce can of course be substituted with simple melted chocolate.  The charm of the coconut-oil based coating is that it smells very strongly of coconut, and you control the amount and type of sugar as well as cacao powder.  If you do choose to use melted chocolate instead, know that the layer of chocolate on each fruit will be much thicker.
In such a simple recipe, quality must be high.  Use good chocolate, aromatic coconut oil, soft dry fruit, and toasted nuts for candies worth serving with tea.

Ingredients:

♕18 dried apricots, whole
♕18 walnut halves
♕3T / 50g extra virgin coconut oil
♕3T / 25g cacao powder
♕2T / 25g sugar

Procedure:

♕Melt the oil and sugar.  Stir in the cacao powder, making sure to avoid clumps.
♕In each apricot, make a long slice, so that the apricot becomes a pocket.
♕Place one nut in each apricot.
♕Dip apricots in to the chocolate mixture, and place on a piece of parchment paper.
♕Move to a cold place.
♕At this point, the chocolate coating will be rather thin on the fruit.  If you wish to make it thicker, allow coating to dry and quickly redip the candies.
♕Allow the coating to harden completely, and serve.

Yeast-Risen Rhubarb, Blackberry, and Ginger Dessert Bread

As spring comes around, it is difficult to think of anything but yeast-risen rhubarb, blackberry, and ginger dessert breads.

The yeast really makes this recipe's dough a hybrid of bread and dessert, with a texture which allows it to be pulled apart instead of crumbling.  The ginger adds a somber note to its smell.
This recipe is great to be served alongside breakfast.  With enough sugar to be sweet, but enough berries, whole wheat, ginger, and savory aspects to its taste to be satisfying.  The current baking time yields a cake with a cracked, smooth crust and a moist, poundcake-like inside.
To get a drier, more bread-like dough, you could try baking it either for an additional ten minutes, or at a higher temperature (425˚F / 220 ˚C), keeping a cover on top of the dough as is bakes for 30 minutes and removing it in the last 10 minutes.
If you wish, you could cut this bread into slices and make it act as a fancy sandwich.  Spreading it with mascarpone and adding strawberries is very good indeed.

Serving suggestion.

Ingredients:

♕1.5 cup / 240g white flour
♕1cup / 170g whole wheat flour
♕1 cup / 410g turbinado sugar
♕1/3 cup / 80mL almond oil or butter
♕2.5 cup / 300g rhubarb, cut into pieces and washed
♕1/2c / 70g blackberries
♕3T / 7g grated ginger
♕2 eggs
♕3/4 cup / 240mL milk
♕2 heaping t / 10g active dry yeast
♕handful strawberries or blackberries (optional)

Procedure

♕Heat the milk until it is warm to the touch, as close as possible to (but not over) 37˚C / 98˚F
note: in the microwave on high power it is reached in 50seconds, be sure to stir before using thermometer
♕Mix sugar, white flour, milk and yeast, and let sit for 1-2 hours in a place as close as possible to 37˚C
♕Mix in the eggs and additional almond oil.
♕Sift in the extra flour, then add the berries, ginger and rhubarb
♕Pour dough into a greased baking pan and let sit for half an hour in a warm environment
♕If so desired, after the half hour, line the pan's edges with sliced strawberries or blackberries
note: I forgot to do this.
♕Bake at 350˚F/180˚C for 40 minutes.
♕Let sit in the turned-off oven for 7 minutes if you are not satisfied with the brownness of the crust on the bread.
♕Remove from oven and let cool under a cotton cloth until warm.
♕Serve with milk.

Grapefruit Greek Yoghurt Parfait

This is a tasty, protein-rich yoghurt recipe.  You could either make it for breakfast, or prepare it in a small jar-like container and have it for lunch.  Many elements in the recipe can be adjusted to suit what you have in your kitchen.  I will definitely be using this greek yoghurt-mascarpone base for more lunches, and look forward to trying out new ingredient combinations.

Ingredients:


♕1 cup / 250g Greek-style yoghurt, plain
note: I use nonfat, and the amount of mascarpone added masks the sour taste.
♕2 T / 32g mascarpone
♕1T / 21g honey, ideally one with a strong flavor such as buckwheat honey
♕3-6T / 30-60g oats, rolled or steel-cut
♕1 segment of grapefruit
♕Pinch of grapefruit, lemon, or orange zest
♕Splash quality vanilla extract
♕Handful blueberries

The greatest charm of a parfait in a clear container is that the
fruit, oatmeal, and yoghurt often fall into a face-like shape.

Procedure:

♕Combine the honey and mascarpone, mixing well
♕Add in Greek yoghurt and scrape the grapefruit segment's pulp into the mixture, do not get any of the fibrous walls into the mix
♕Add vanilla and zest.  Mix until homogenous.
♕Layer blueberries, oats, and yoghurt mixture into a container or bowl.
♕Let sit overnight, chilled, or at least for two hours.

Healthier 15 Minute Sundaes

 

I realize that most sundaes take approximately three minutes to assemble, so this recipe's main selling point is that it will clog ones' arteries slightly less than a sundae made with all store-bought components: The fats are healthy saturated type, the sugar can be modified (white granulated, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, or even stevia can all be easily accepted by the recipe).   Most importantly, the flavors compliment each other very well.  I was very happy after eating this.

Ingredients:

♕1.5 cup / 355mL whipping cream
♕3T / 45mL brewed coffee no sugar
♕1.5T / 25mL vanilla
♕5T / 70g coconut oil, solid
♕5.5T / 30g cacao powder
♕1/3 cup+ 3T / 90g+40g sugar (separated)
♕2-5 bananas
♕Optional: pineapple, berries, raisins, nuts, or even more bananas for topping

Procedure:

♕Put a large metal bowl and the beaters to an electric mixer into your freezer.
♕Brew some coffee, make it strong.

♕Microwave coconut oil to melt it.
♕Mix in cacao powder and 1/3 cup / 90g sugar, and stir until homogeneous.  Set aside, it should be more or less fluid.
♕Once the coffee and chocolate sauce is done, remove the metal bowl and beaters from the freezer.
♕Allow 3T/ 45mL coffee to cool while you pour the cream into the bowl.
♕Whip the cream, starting at a low speed and ending fast.  Near the end of the whipping process, add vanilla, coffee, and sugar.
♕Slice your bananas.
♕Into three or four large serving glasses, layer banana, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.  Top with other things, if you so wish.  The chocolate should become solid soon after being poured.


♕Serve immediately or after refrigerating, with coffee or strong tea.

Sort-of-Healthy Donut Truffles

This recipe is inspired by all those truffle recipes floating around.  It is high in "good" fat and has some plant protein in it, and it tastes nice, too!  The coating of turbandino sugar has them reflect light in a very pretty way.

The truffles were meant to taste like traditional American donuts, and I think they do that pretty well.  Their texture, however, is much more dense than fried dough.

Ingredients:
♕ 1 1/2 cups/220g cashews, soaked overnight (pre-soak amount)
♕ 1/2 cup/75g almonds, whole 
♕ 1/2 cup/85g golden raisins
♕ 3 T/50mL coconut oil, melted
♕ dash nutmeg
♕ 1 t/5mL quality vanilla extract
♕ pinch salt
♕ approximately 1/3 cup/60g turbandino sugar, powdered sugar, or ground almonds
note: if using ground almonds, also add 1/2 t almond extract to this recipe.  The turbandino sugar adds a crunch to an otherwise soft sweet, while powdered doesn't interfere with texture. 

Procedure:

♕ In a food processor, grind the almonds into a very fine powder.  
♕ Dump the raisins in, grind, and then add all other ingredients save for the turbandino sugar or powdered sugar.
♕ Process until the whole mess looks homogenous. 
♕ Dump the mixture into a bowl, and pinch off pieces roughly the size of a ping pong ball.
♕ Roll the pieces into sphered, and coat in the sugar or ground almonds
note: instead of rolling in sugar, you could also make a donut-like glaze from the powdered sugar and a few drops of an extract of choice, and cover the spheres in that.
♕ Place on a plate and refrigerate or freeze until serving.